Dangerous Prayers: Speak To Me! Series

Dangerous Prayers: Speak to Me!

I Samuel 3:1-21

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

01-10-2021

We are in the last of the series of messages called “Dangerous Prayers.”

The first week, we saw that Isaiah’s response to experiencing God presence, his own sinfulness, and God’s amazing grace, was to say, “Here am I. Send me!”

Last week, we studied Psalm 139 and saw that David understood that God loved him completely and knew him intimately so he could pray the dangerous prayer, “Search me.”

This morning, we will be looking at another incredibly dangerous prayer - Speak to me!

Turn with me to I Samuel 3.

Prayer.

Text within the Context

It will help us to understand the passage to look at the text within the context.

There was a man named Elkanah who had two wives named Hanna and Peninnah. Polygamy was not God’s intent for marriage but it had become common in that time.

Elkanah loved Hannah more than Peninnah but Hannah had not had any children. This would have caused Hannah a sense of shame in that culture. On top of that, Peninnah had many children and constantly mocked and tortured Hannah.

One day, Hannah was at the Temple and she was weeping and praying quietly to herself:

“And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” (I Samuel 1:11)

Eli, the priest watched her for a while and walked over to her and accused her of being drunk!

Hannah replied,

“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” (I Samuel 1:15-16)

Eli answered,

“Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” (I Samuel 1:17)

Hannah became pregnant and named the boy Samuel, which sounds like the Hebrew for “heard by God.”

When Samuel was about three, she took him to the priest Eli. She sacrificed a bull and then said to Eli:

“Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.” (I Samuel 1:26-28)

Hannah would visit him each year and bring him a robe she had made. And Samuel grew up under Eli’s care and ministered in the temple.

The Silence

“The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.” (I Samuel 3:1)

Jewish tradition says that Samuel was about twelve years old at this point. So he had been living with Eli for nine years and ministering in the Temple.

There were not many prophets and God had withheld His word as a discipline for the spiritual apathy and darkness that characterized Israel at this time.

But this was about to change!

The Call

One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Eli was nearly blind and was past the age (50) of being able to do the work of the Temple. He had gone to bed.

Samuel was actually sleeping outside of the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was located.

This wooden box overlaid with gold contained the Ten Commandments, a golden pot of manna, and Aron’s rod that budded in the Egyptian court. It represented the presence of God among his people.

The lamp of god had not gone out which means it was somewhere in the middle of the night.

Samuel would have been responsible for lighting the lamp and making sure it didn’t go out until dawn.